Zinc 01 - Altors, page 4
part #1 of Zinc Series
Sol grumbled. "Yeah, but it's weird because she isn't as gentle as she makes herself out to be."
"She doesn't know we saw." I pointed out. Acacia had secrets. Both of the Jacoby’s did.
~~~~~~~~
"Delph!" I whispered harshly, smacking my pillow down onto his sleeping face as I pointed outside our window, staring wide eyed down to the courtyard.
"What?!" He barked.
"Come look!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of his bed, shoving him towards the window. "Look." I repeated sternly. Delph sighed, scowling at me before looking down. He blinked and then pressed his nose up against the glass.
"Am I seeing what I think I am seeing?" He asked in wonder. I nodded at him before running out of the room and bursting into Holly and Sol's, waking them up roughly and not stopping to listen to their complaints as I dragged them over to stand beside Delph.
"Is that a sword?" Holly asked in a shriek.
I grinned. "They've been going at it for the past fifteen minutes. I needed to pee." I paused. “I still do. But I got distracted.” I stuck my head between Holly and Sol's faces in order to catch another peek at what was going on.
Lupinus and Acacia were sparring with massive looking short swords and although that was strange to begin with, the weirder thing was that they were extremely good. So far, Acacia was beating Lupinus.
"Why would a florist and a mechanic need to know how to sword fight?" Sol asked.
~~~~~~~~
We'd never asked them. They obviously didn't want us to know as they'd been practicing at three in the morning.
Sol pursed her lips. "Anyway, the rules clearly state any sex is allowed to participate. It's not about who can throw the meanest punch, it's about the combos. With my jumping skills, I'm sure I can take those jocks that entered last year." She had her ways. Solenum was extremely fast on her feet, and while not the strongest, she had a lot of endurance. When an opponent appeared too hard for her to take on, she'd wear them out first and only start attacking once they were tired.
Delph was all force. He had no endurance, but blocking his attacks was extremely hard and he'd throw you off guard quite easily, which left you vulnerable and he could score his points. I was in the middle. I had less force than Delph and not as much endurance as Sol, but I managed to balance both of them out to my advantage. Helix acted as mine and Delph's back up, and Holly acted as Sol's.
"Hey guys!" I turned around in my chair to see Holly walking over to the table, a new face hiding shyly behind her. Holly gently pulled the new girl forward, smiling reassuringly.
"This is Marguerite Chestnut. It's her first year in high school. We're in gym together and I invited her to sit with us during lunch." We all announced we didn't mind and Holly decided to plop down on Helix's lap so Marguerite could take the extra chair we'd originally kept open for Holly.
Solenum bumped her shoulder into mine, making me detach my eyes from the new girl so I could give my best friend the attention she asked for.
“She's pretty." Sol announced, making sure I knew that I should be interested in the new girl, just in case I wasn't aware. I bumped my shoulder back against hers, shaking my head uncomfortably. People had assumed for a while that the friendship I shared with Sol would turn into a romantic relationship. I knew for certain it wasn't going to happen; I just wasn't interested in her that way. She was like a sister and she always would be. I'd never really given Holly a thought as Helix had attached his claws in her pretty quick. And those were my only two true girl friends. It was all very complicated.
Bottom line, I'd never really given dating a thought. It made sense since I’d always been the misfit sporting braces along with a war-zone of acne decorating my forehead, and I was unfortunate enough to find history interesting. That, along with the fact that I couldn’t handle my liquor like Helix or remain mentally stable like Delph once high, I was the epitome of uncool. How could I think about dating anyone when nobody seemed interested in me to begin with?
I let my eyes subtly scan over Marguerite, hoping she wouldn't notice. She had shoulder length brown hair, a fringe cut neatly above her eyebrows. Her eyes were brown too and she seemed to smile a lot. She definitely had more curves than Sol, but less than Holly. I suppose she was pretty. I guess I'd have to find out if she was nice, too.
After the last school bell rang through the halls, all we needed to do was get our wooden sticks and start practicing. Delph had signed us all up a couple up weeks ago, and it was time to find out if we were worth shit. It was an hour or two later that I found out that we were indeed worth shit, but unfortunately, we weren't worth more than that.
* * * *
Chapter 4: Solenum Everhart
“I feel psychic”
* * * *
After participating in The Ring's tournament for the last three years in a row, we'd finally gotten third place and had high hopes to get first this year, even if we had to compete against Brass and his gang.
About a year ago, Helix’s parents, had shown up at one of the foster parents' meetings on the infamous Sundays me and Cali dreaded each month. His parents had come specifically for one boy, Delph Riddle. Brass had recently moved into the dorms that were attached to the school building and I didn't miss him. Holly was gone now, too. It hadn’t been official like it had been with Delph. She’d become really close to Marguerite. The Chestnut’s had eventually changed their guest room into Holly’s bedroom, never voicing the move in out loud, and while Holly certainly could come back to the boarding house anytime, she never did. With both mine and Cali’s roommates gone, and the fact that we were both seventeen, going on eighteen soon, Acacia and Lupinus had allowed me and Cali to share a room, knowing that nothing questionable would happen as it never had.
With our age, the last Sundays of each month had become less stressful, since people generally weren't enthusiastic about fostering kids older than fourteen. I was glad for it. My life was going alright, things were easy and familiar. Aside from the nightmares, I never thought I'd feel this good ever again. I still looked like a wooden plank, but I'd grown. Cali liked to think I was extremely tall, whereas I preferred thinking of him being particularly short. The annoying thing about having gained in height so fast meant that my clothes didn't fit anymore and due to the lack of resources a boarding house would get, Acacia hadn't gotten the chance to take me out shopping yet.
"Get up you good for nothings!" Delph shouted happily, a big grin plastered on his face as he burst into mine and Cali’s bedroom. He seemed surprised I was awake already, but quickly ignored me as he was thrilled to find Cali still sleeping, making him his victim.
"Five more minutes." Cali asked pleadingly. I winced on his behalf, knowing that to be the wrong answer.
Delph moved quickly to Cali's bed, ripping the blanket gleefully off of the sleeping boy and hauled a roaring, yet giggling, Calycanthus over his shoulder, carrying him out of the bedroom and leaving me standing alone before the closet.
"Delph! No!" His voice was loud enough to wake the entire household. "Stop. Stop! No! Not the-" There was a loud shriek that contained a vivid display of pure horror and then on the falsetto side, Cali added the last of his shout, "Shower!" I smirked knowingly. I had been Delph's first victim. I'd had no idea he had been planning to toss me into the a spray of cold water to wake me. I wasn't sure whether it was better to know before it happened, or to be clueless.
Clothing myself quickly, I decided to visit the crime scene. Before I could even get in, my best friend stormed out, wet like a dog.
"Out of my way!" Detaching myself from the wall I’d plastered myself against so I could follow Cali’s demand perfectly, I spared Delph an amused glance as he was doubled over with laughter.
"You guys are such princesses." He wiped the tears away from his eyes, straightened and then looked at me through the mirror, mirth still dancing around in his eyes. Funny thing about Delph was that he'd never experienced his very own waking up method, so he couldn't possibly know how horrid it was. He was lucky Cali didn't stay mad very long.
My best friend joined us, taking the sink beside mine so he could prepare his own toothbrush.
“You know you don't live here anymore, right?" Cali pointed out. Delph moved between us, wrapping an arm around our shoulders.
"Come on, guys! It wouldn't be a tournament if I didn't wake one of you up brutally. It's tradition!" Cali shuddered and I felt obliged to nod at Delph in agreement, as it had become tradition.
"Where are the others?" I asked, picking up a brush so I could fight the knots in my hair out. Cali was plucking at his hair absently. It had grown out all the way down to his jaw. While Acacia made sure mine was always cut at the same length, she wasn't able to put some order to the mess Cali called his hair. Then again, it had been made clear that short hair didn't look good on him the one time he had let Acacia cut it. Unfortunately, he still didn't understand that by taking the time to brush it regularly, it might not look like half of it had been forced up through static, and the other half had been ironed down.
"Holly and Helix are already at the ring, they wanted to get some good seats." Delph said absently, staring at Cali who was still trying to set his hair to rights. Having unknotted my own, I tossed the brush in his direction.
"And Marguerite?" Cali asked curiously, his yellow eyes less absent now as she was the subject of conversation. It had taken Calycanthus way too long to figure out Marguerite was a girl he could be attracted too. I kind of wanted to kick him for taking that much time because she was a pretty girl and many boys in town had their eye on her. Not that she would notice, as far as I knew she only had eyes for Cali. Of course Cali was too stupid to realize this and while I'd left it up to faith for the past year and a half, it was about two months ago that I'd decided enough was enough and that my meddling skills were painfully needed. Meaning, I'd told Cali he had a crush on Marguerite and although he had seemed surprised at first with this new found information, he wasn't all that reluctant to disagree.
I wasn't very close to Marguerite, we hung out together all the time because we had the same friends, but we barely talked, so I couldn't give her the little push. I'd asked Holly, but she had answered that it was complicated.
Cali was a bit of a wuss when it came to dating, so I was surprised it hadn't taken him yet another year to finally make his liking for her clear to people other than myself. Sure, he didn't flat out announce to Delph that he liked the girl, but he'd asked about her and obviously Delph had gotten the hint as he was staring wide eyed at Cali's reflection. I decided to mute myself and watch the scene that was about to unfold.
"You like Marguerite?" Delph asked nervously. Cali blushed and I stopped myself from rolling my eyes at the idiocy that was boys.
"It's not like I like her, like her. It's just that all the girls I am close to, I consider family." Cali paused. "I didn't grow up with her so I don't have that big brother protection urge." He frowned at himself before he continued on with his ramblings. "Anyway, I'm seventeen and I've never dated before. The only kiss I had was with Holly and that was because she insisted on playing spin the bottle." I grinned at the memory. Good times. "Whatever. You know the story, you were there." He groaned, probably feeling like an idiot. I would too if I were him. He was reasoning his liking for Marguerite completely wrong. Cali shrugged, dropping the hairbrush in the sink, giving up on his hair. I'm pretty sure it looked worse now than it did before the brush.
Delph, strangely enough, seemed to understand what Cali was getting at. "My thoughts exactly. I've dated before, but nothing serious. I think I could maybe have something with Marguerite. Which is a problem because apparently so do you. What do we do now? I know your best buddy is Solenum, but," Delph turned his gaze on me, smiling sweetly. "Sorry, you're still and will always be a girl. So, you're Cali's best girl buddy, while I'm his best guy buddy. And," Now he turned his gaze back on Cali. "Since we are best guy buddies, I know we don't want to fight over Marguerite. So what? Do we slice her in two?" Was it the weight of their penises that affected the intelligence of their brains? I didn't wait to see what they had to say about my mood as I turned around, walking out of the bathroom to wait for them downstairs when they were done figuring things out.
I could hear Cali speaking as I walked down. "Let's not slice her up. I mean, it would totally resolve my problems of scaring the foster parents away forever, but I don't think my butt is ready for prison yet." It had to be something about their manly bits that made them this way.
Delph replied, laughing, "You're so full of yourself, man!" Ever since the acne disappeared and the braces had been plucked off his teeth, Calycanthus had indeed become the hottest boy in town. I'd foretold it and it had happened. Sure, his hair was knotted, but the ‘I just rolled outta bed’ look worked more than it did damage. He’d filled out nicely thanks to all the practicing we did for The Ring. Although he couldn’t grow facial hair at all, from Holly’s clinical description I now knew that Cali was apparently very ‘lick-able’ in the minds of numerous girls here in LV. I felt psychic.
Cali chuckled. "It's true. I'm a catch!" Of course I hadn't been able to foretell his ego would skyrocket. I would have liked a warning on that one.
* * * *
The Ring had a rectangular platform placed in the middle of LV's city center plaza. Wooden benches were settled around it for the crowd. The floor beneath was somewhat soft, waterproof gym mates nailed into the platform until The Ring tournament and cheerleader routines had finished their seasons. The main shops circled the plaza. From where I was standing, I could see the baker, the fisher, the butcher and the book store and as I'd been here many times, I knew that behind me I'd find three different clothing stores, an ice-cream stand, the library, Acacia's flower shop, LV's town house where the Mayor and his family resided, and the house of council.
Delph wrapped an arm around Cali’s shoulders, handing him the stick he’d need for the upcoming battle. I was still out of breath from my round, sweat making me feel sticky. We were up against Brass and his gang, fighting for the winning cup. My win allowed Cali to continue.
“Normally I'd take the last round against Brass as I'm the head of this team." Delph started. "But as you've been wanting to give him a good pounding since you were ten and you poor idiots still had to endure his long suffering face every single fucking day while I wasn't around, Imma let you have him." It wasn't what I'd call a pep talk, but it seemed to work for Cali.
When Delph and Holly had moved out, Brass had kicked his bully abilities up a notch. Since we were suddenly the only two to defend ourselves from him and his gang, I suppose he saw an opportunity. He usually picked on Cali and me when we weren't together, which was rare, but it happened. I didn't know what Brass did to Cali, he never said, just shrugged it off. I didn't press because he'd tell me when he was ready. Cali was a thinker, always needed to mull things over before voicing them out loud; I respected that as he respected that I was a blurter. I needed to get things out of my system the moment they bothered me.
The ring master, who moonlighted as the baker, blew his whistle, catching the attention of the crowd. Cali and Brass took their positions opposite from each other and I couldn't help but let myself drink in the view carefully. This moment was big. The last two tournaments Cali and Brass had never battled against each other.
I bit my lip nervously, remembering how Cali had stood up for me that very first day we met. The fight that had wanted to break out back then but had never occurred, was going to happen now.
"Listen up!" The Ring master said, "We know you two don't get along. But remember this is The Ring and there are rules. Either of you break those rules and you're out." They both nodded in understanding. Although Brass was the biggest jerk face in the world, he wouldn't cheat. He had some standards.
"Prepare." The Ring master stepped backwards and off the platform. "Set." He lifted the whistle to his lips and blew on it loudly.
Neither of them moved from where they stood, just swaying back and forth, keeping the muscles warm, eying each other up. The cheers were equally loud for Cali as they were for Brass. So loud in fact, I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other. They started circling one another, stepping closer. From the fire I could see burning in Cali's eyes, I knew Brass was pushing his buttons. But from Brass' occasional snarl, I could tell Cali was hitting him back just as harshly. Problem was, the battle was taking place with words.
I exhaled loudly and jumped onto the bench, making Lupinus scowl and Acacia mutter for me to get down. I ignored both.
"Come on, Cali! Stop pussyfooting around and knock him out!" A grin spread over his mouth and his movements picked up in his speed. Brass leaped and hit Cali twice on the shoulder. Third time Cali jumped to the side, smacking Brass twice in the back. Knowing a third time would be pushing his luck, he danced backwards as Brass turned around to face him again. He charged straight for my best friend, no longer playing around either.
Cali jumped, Brass did a slide. Brass spun, Cali flipped backwards. Cali attacked, Brass danced away. Brass charged, Cali blocked.
I frowned, turning to Delph who was sporting a concerned look himself.
"They're equally strong! You think Cali has enough endurance to keep up?"
Delph scratched his head. "I dunno, Sol. This looks more like a freaking tango then it does a Ring battle." He paused. "That's it. I'm signing us up for the ballet tournaments next year. What with your graceful flip flops and Cali's dance moves, we'll be a major hit with no practice at all." I smacked him over the back of his head before fixing my attention back on the battle.
It seemed to have picked up in speed, they weren't giving each other time to breathe anymore, both starting to look winded. I gritted my teeth, feeling the ball of tight nerves clenching inside my stomach again. Their lips moved and before it even happened, I knew something bad was going to occur.
